Skip to content
Mogged
Environment & waterAgencyExists today

Bureau of Meteorology

BoM · Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology · RAAF Meteorological Service

1 January 1908 – present

Australia's national weather, climate and water agency, providing forecasts, warnings, observations and climate records, and since 2007–08 national water information and (through the former Ionospheric Prediction Service) space weather services.

How it came into existence

Set up under the Meteorology Act 1906 in the Department of Home Affairs, with H. A. Hunt as Commonwealth Meteorologist, and began operating on 1 January 1908 when it took over the meteorological services previously run by the states.

  • Split from Department of Home Affairs · 1 January 1908
    • Commonwealth meteorology

    Meteorology was a Home Affairs responsibility from 1901; the bureau was organised within that department after the Meteorology Act 1906 and took over the state services from 1 January 1908.

Legislation: Meteorology Act 1906; Meteorology Act 1955; Water Act 2007

Changes during its life

  1. 14 November 1916Moved to the new Department of Home and Territories when the Department of Home Affairs was abolished.
  2. 10 December 1928Moved to the new Department of Home Affairs when the Department of Home and Territories was abolished.
  3. 12 April 1932Came under the Department of the Interior (re-created in 1939), where it stayed, apart from the war years, until 1972.
  4. 1941Militarised for the Second World War as the RAAF Meteorological Service in the Department of Air.
  5. 1946Returned to civilian control in the Department of the Interior.
  6. 1955The Meteorology Act 1955 replaced the Meteorology Act 1906 as the bureau's enabling Act.
  7. 19 December 1972Moved to the new Department of Science, beginning a long period in the science portfolios.
  8. 24 July 1987Moved to the Department of the Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories, and has since remained in the environment portfolio.
  9. 3 March 2008The Water Act 2007, which commenced on 3 March 2008, gave the bureau national water information functions, including water accounts and water information standards.
  10. 1 July 2022Moved to the new Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Main functions

  • Weather forecasting and severe weather warnings
  • Meteorological observations and climate records
  • Aviation and marine weather services
  • Climate monitoring and seasonal outlooks
  • National water information (Water Act 2007)
  • Flood forecasting and warnings
  • Space weather forecasting

Where it sits

In the portfolio of Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Type of body
Non-corporate Commonwealth entity
Portfolio
Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Accountable authority
Director – Meteorology Act 1955 section 8A(c)
ABN
92 637 533 532

Lineage

Loading lineage…

Sources